


Death of a Bachelor LVerseVersion

by lilolilyrae



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Because i'll also post a 'clean' version without my weird OCs for the public to read, Lucyverse, Lverse, Multi, Nott tagging this 00-q despite being it, XD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 23:36:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16005656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilolilyrae/pseuds/lilolilyrae
Summary: I had "death of a bachelor" by P!atD stuck in my head all day and then I watched Casino Royale and this happened.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R03cqGg40GU





	Death of a Bachelor LVerseVersion

**Author's Note:**

> I had "death of a bachelor" by P!atD stuck in my head all day and then I watched Casino Royale and this happened.
> 
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R03cqGg40GU

_When the house starts filling with water, she knows her life will be over. Her life as she knew it already is... So why not just give up? It's obvious she was never cut out for this world._

_She locks the elevator._

_It crashes into the depths._

_On the ground it is smashed and she is swept out and away, pulled even deeper into the sea by a current too strong to fight had she wanted to._

 

_Then there are faces in the deep._

_Fighting their own battles, away from the one she had seen._

_Protecting the battles to be fought by other people, is what they do._

 

_One of them sees her._

_And not caring about rules and fate and logic, just seeing a drowning woman who didn't do enough wrong to deserve such a fate, she decides to help her._

_Against better judgement, perhaps._

_But Vesper Lynd lives._

 

 

 

 

When James Bond gets a message to meet a stranger in a café in plain daylight, it's usually while on a case, dealing with diplomats, other spies or criminal masterminds, and either way with secrets that threaten the earth as we know it.

But he isn't on a case. 

Just returned to London from one actually, and he's fairly certain he got all of the bad guys disposed of, and everyone that could need protection dealt with.

So why the note?

A former lover?

That's what it says, at least, but that could be code for a lot of things. If it were a code he understands. 

 

And someone he believes to be dead?

Again, that could mean a lot of things, and even if he takes only the people whose bodies were never found and whose files still got the stamp from the MI6 it's an impressive list.

 

Yet, there is only one person who is both, literally: a lover and most-likely-dead.

James does not know what to make of this.

 

 

He goes to the café. 

"I didn't know whether you'd come"

"I wasn't sure I'd come, either."

Sitting down, eyes adjusting to the light inside, he first gets a good look of her face.

She's thinner than she used to be, gaunt and wary-looking, her hair a badly coloured blonde.

But it's still undeniably her.

Vesper Lynd. 

 

"I thought you were dead"

"Well, I wanted to die"

"Why? Wh-" the waitress comes, and they are both silent except for placing their orders until she is well out of hearing range again.

"Why, why did I try to commit suicide, or why, why didn't it work out?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were still alive?"

She cringes.

"How about I'll answer them all in that order.

I didn't want to live because it felt like I didn't already while I was still breathing. 

I thought I had found my true life with you, but in reality I had only ended my old one.

Even if we had still had the money, the peace and quiet wasn't your true self. Your old life would have caught up with you, sooner or later."

 

He wants to disagree. 

But something in him tells him to stick with the truth.

And isn't that exactly what she just said?

He doesn't interrupt. 

 

"And then I had stolen my former employers money for a criminal... You believed I had betrayed you...

When I was caught in a steel box in a collapsing house while everyone around me was trying to kill each other, it looked like the world was going to end.

You know, I don't regret not dying- but in that moment, I really wanted to be gone, if only to escape it all"

 

He nods.

He knows the sentiment. 

He isn't shaking only because of extensive training, and perhaps because by now he is used to his own PTSD.

 

"As for the how... I'm not so sure you would believe me"

"I don't think there's much left I'd consider implausible."

"There's a group of people- their own special ops, I suppose, but they have- powers. I don't know why they were there or what they were after... But one of them pulled me out"

"Powers?"

"You wouldn't understand. I barely do so myself and I have seen it first hand. And that isn't what this meeting is about, anyway." 

 

"Is it not?"

 

"No.

Next is the why- why didn't I tell you. That I survived.

At first, I just wanted to get away- I had seen so much death. More than you know of. Probably not close to what you have seen in your life, but for me it was already too much.

And then when everything started to become clear, I began to understand. 

We are different, you and I.

It would have never worked out between the two of us anyways- you need your world. I need mine."

 

For a minute, they sit in silence.

Then, for the first time in what feels like hours but we're merely minutes, he speaks.

 

"Yes.

I didn't want to see it.

Even after you were gone, I was clinging to the thought that we belonged together, despite it meaning holding on to useless pain.

I did grieve for you, too- but more so did I grieve the possibility of such a life.

An ordinary life, with ordinary jobs, and ordinary love.

But you are right, of course- it isn't me."

 

He wants to say more, but before he can start a woman steps out of the shadow of a corner of the room, obviously drunk despite the early hour.

She recognises her.

"Waitwait ghostface, you two- talking?"

She blinks.

Understanding dawns, and perhaps acceptance.

" 'kay just don't let _her_ know..."

 

Vesper stares her down, defiantly.

Maybe she did learn some things from him.

Maybe it's just a skill she has from her very normal job.

" _Her_? I don't think she'd care much about someone like me, or why I'm still breathing"

"Oh, you'd be surprised bout what she cared in the past. Just- don't attract too much attention and hope she won't think of you."

With that, the red-headed drunk disappears again. 

No look spared at him.

It irritates him, perhaps more than it should.

But other questions are more pressing. 

  
  
"Well..."

She sets on to explain.

"The story says I was to die, and as you are the main character of it, I suppose you shouldn't know they saved me, as it could change your course..."

"That mystery girl's afraid we're gonna run off together?"

"Not a problem, now is it?"

She laughs, but her eyes are sad.

He smiles.

Again, he understands the sentiment. 

"Perhaps not" he slowly says. "but what stops us from staying in contact? Keep a sense of perspective, knowing what's going on in our separate worlds"

She smiles, and this time it's genuine. 

 

 

  
They become friends, over time.

She still doesn't like his world of action and hiding. 

He still can't stand the lack of excitement in her apartment for more than a week.

But they enjoy each other's company all the same.

 

Vesper goes back to dating men she meets online.

Bond goes back to ignoring that love even exists.

Until one day, he doesn't.

And isn't it fitting that she would be one of the first to find out?

 

 

 

They're in bed together, he and his quartermaster turned friend turned lover.

It's the early hours of the morning, and James has just woken up, Q still fast asleep in his arms after working through half of the night.

 

Vesper enters the flat.

James Bond's current semi-regular housing is hidden from the world, no-one should enter but him, no one has the codes necessary to get in unharmed, so that no-one may betray him, willingly or unwillingly.

The only reason she does is, as he said, that no-one would expect her to have them. (And because he let her.)

 

"Hey, you forgot to secure the booby trap on the second door again..."

He doesn't reply, slowly extracting himself from the still-sleeping Q.

"James?"

Now she sounds slightly scared. His world is still nothing for her, after all.

 

"I'm here..."

He says quietly, hoping not to wake his companion. He doesn't get enough sleep as is...

"Everything's okay, I've just got company"

He doesn't sound stressed. But would he really invite someone in here? She's never met anyone but him inside.

"Company? The gun wielding or the naked kind?"

"The naked kind and I think the kind that doesn't want you to see them"

 

She lifts an eyebrow.Who doesn't want to be seen with the notorious James Bond?

More importantly, who of that kind would he like to be with? 

And for what? 

Sex, after all, he could have anywhere. 

Smiling at the realisation, she leaves them to it. They can have breakfast together another time.

 

Later, she sends him message.

 

 

> _I hope it works out for you this time :)_

And an audio: '[Death of a Bachelor](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IT4seGdXn_Y)'

 

James frowns at his phone.

"What?" Q looks up from his laptop screen.

"Just... an acquaintance sent me something, it has an audio attached to it...

She likes to send stuff with a meaning, but she's not the kind to utter death threats?"

He shows him the screen.

 

"You know people who aren't the kind to send death threats? I'm impressed!"

Q laughs. Then he reads the songtitle and laughs even harder.

"I know that song! I didn't know you told anyone about us?"

"I haven't" 

Now he is confused.

"Play it, come on!"

 

... _Happily ever after_

_How could I ask for more?_

_A lifetime of laughter_

_At the expense_

_Of the death of a bachelor..._

"Huh"

"Yeah. Sure you didn't tell anyone?"

"Well... She was her earlier..."

"What?"

"You were still asleep, I told her to go away"

James has a quizzical look on his face.

"How did she know you were more than a one night stand?"

 

Q smiles.

"I suppose this woman knows you better than you think! I'd like to meet her, someday."

And, perhaps against better judgement, James feels himself nod.

**Author's Note:**

> I do not know why or how I fell into this creepy writing style.


End file.
